Arrowsmith
Vocabulary

17 uses

Martin, in ... his distaste for the amiable dullness of Irving Watters, turned to the roaring Clif as to something living and experimenting.

amiable = friendly and kindly

4 uses

he could not forget the cool ascetic hours in the laboratory

ascetic = relating to self-denial (of comfort and luxury)

1 use

32 uses

you may have hit on the supreme way to kill pathogenic bacteria.

bacteria = microorganisms (living creatures so small it takes a microscope to see them)

(editor's note:  Something that is pathogenic causes disease.)

8 uses

There was at the time, in certain places, a doubt as to how benevolent the United States had been to its Little Brothers—Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua—and the editors and politicians were grateful to Martin for this proof of their sacrifice and tender watchfulness.

benevolent = kind or generous

21 uses

Martin hastened to Terry, declaring that he would resign—would denounce— would expose— Yes!

denounce = accuse publicly

5 uses

They ignored traffic regulations, they disdained the people, returning from theaters and movies, who dotted the streets which unrolled before the flying gray hood.

disdained = treated as inferior

36 uses

They're not going to permit another great epidemic of it.

epidemic = a widespread outbreak of an infectious disease

6 uses

...the ordeal of a professional social life, and he could never understand that esoteric phenomenon, the dinner-party—the painful entertainment of people whom one neither likes nor finds interesting.

esoteric = understandable by only an enlightened inner circle

6 uses

they liked her, the more because she was a heretic whose vices, her smoking, her indolence, her relish of competent profanity, disturbed Mrs. Pickerbaugh and Mrs. Irving Watters.

indolence = laziness

1 use

3 uses

a philanthropist who was generous only because it larded his vanity.

philanthropist = someone who helps others

(editor's note:  larded is a synonym for embellished or adorned)

9 uses

I am a pious agnostic.

pious = behaving in a highly moral or religious manner

(editor's note:  an agnostic is someone who says they do not know if God exists or not)

11 uses

He had stopped his pretense of working; he was standing before her, arms akimbo, dark eyes demanding.

pretense = an appearance or action to help one pretend

10 uses

I am sorry you are not to have the fun of being pretentious and successful—for a while.

pretentious = acting more impressive than is deserved

2 uses

She spoke with scorn of the other inhabitants of the apartment-house, who were "so prosaic, so conventional..."

prosaic = lacking anything unusual, interesting, or challenging

(editor's note:  scorn is a synonym for contempt or disrespect)

2 uses

Because he was so intimately fond of her and so sure of her, because anger and eager hot injustices are but ways of expressing trust, Martin was irritated by her and querulous with her as he would not have endured being with any other woman, any charming Orchid.

querulous = habitually complaining

10 uses

Clif had risen, not too steadily, though his voice and his eyes were resolute.

resolute = firm in purpose or belief

2 uses

In the study of the profession to which he had looked forward all his life he found irritation and vacuity as well as...

vacuity = lack of intelligent thought

6 uses

His friendly zeal was drab compared with that of his wife.

zeal = active interest and enthusiasm